Chef’s Corner

Chef’s Corner #4 – Hands-On Recipe:

Create Norris’s Ultimate Calzone Crust Tonight

Want to create a delicious dinner or even a special weekend brunch? How about making homemade Calzones? According to Wikipedia, a Calzone is “an Italian oven-baked folded pizza that originated in Naples, They are usually filled with meats, cheeses and vegetable – basically anything you would normally put on a pizza. So you can make your choice of fillings as healthy as you want. We’ll show you step-by-step how to prepare a hot, fresh Calzone in your own kitchen. It’s easier then you might think.

4. Place 3 Cups of Bread Flour in larger mixing bowl with a pinch of salt

5. Take flour mixture, activated yeast and 2 ounce of olive oil

6. Pour yeast mixture and olive oil into the mixing bowl with flour and place in kitchen aid (or other mixer) with dough hook. Mix on low for 7 minutes

7. After 7 minutes of mixing your dough should look like this:

8. Cover bowl with kitchen towel and let rest for 1.5 hours

9. After the dough has rested for 1.5 hours, cut and knead into 4 ounce balls

10. Use a rolling pin to form balls into 9-inch rounds

11. Place desired filling in middle of circle (shown: sausage, pepperoni and mozzarella)

12. Fold one end over and form a half moon and pinch edges together

13. Brush with olive oil and minced garlic. Place in preheated 350-degree oven for 18 minutes (time may vary based on different ovens)

Voila and Enjoy!!!

Chef’s Corner #3

Styles of Food Service

Food service styles include, but not limited to:

Buffet

Modified Buffet

Butlered Service

American Service

Banquet French

Food Stations

Passed and/or Station Appetizers

To make your decision easier, below is information on the most common types of service offered by Catering by Norris.

Passed and/or Station Appetizers:

Over the last few years, this service has become something of a trend, particularly with wedding receptions and bridal showers. The casual atmosphere that it sets gives all guests the opportunity to circulate and mingle while sampling some tasty tit-bits and sharing some excellent cocktails. Hors d’oeuvres can be laid out in elegant buffet displays so that guests can help themselves or they can be passed out by servers. Take your event to the next level by hiring trained bartenders, who can ensure that everyone has the drink of their choice.

Buffet Style Service:

This established service, among corporate events and some “budget conscious” fundraisers gives guests the opportunity to mingle and chat as they serve themselves from a delicious array of expertly prepared dishes. Add a simple upgrade, by having CBN provide a server to assist your guests with their buffet selections. Buffet style service allows guests to choose from a variety of menu options, so every guest’s appetite will be satisfied, particularly those with food allergies and specific diet restrictions.

American (Sit-Down Dinner) Service:

Regardless of the type of event, the traditional seated plated meals are by far the most popular of any dinner service. The standard plated dinner service consists of three courses individually served by trained and experienced wait staff. Guests typically have a choice of predetermined entrees, which they select from when they RSVP for the event. Plated dinner service is formal and elegant and suitable for most high-end events, from political fundraisers to wedding receptions. Having guests served ensures that guests are pampered and treated to a special night out.

To learn more about how we can service your next event, please give us a call. Don’t’ forget that Catering by Norris also provides simple “drop off” meals to your place of work or residence.

Chef’s Secret #2

Knowing Your Ovens Temperature

Does this sound familiar? You are meticulously following each step of a recipe, but when you open the oven door at the prescribed amount of time, your creation is raw, overdone, or cooked unevenly. To solve this issue you will need to calibrate your oven. It’s a lot easier than it sounds and just requires a reliable oven thermometer and some time.

If you haven’t done this before, I recommend that you do a few simple tests before you bake another dish. Place the oven thermometer in your oven and heat your oven to 350 degrees. I would leave it on for one hour. After an hour, check the thermometer to see what the temperature is. You may want to tap the front of the dial to make sure the hands aren’t sticking. If it is not 350°, what temperature is it? Keep notes. So, if your oven heats to 325° when you set it to 350°, then you know that you need to set it to 350° when you need it to heat to 325°.

Now set your dial to 375° and see what temperature it heats to after an hour. If it heats to 350°, then you can make the educated guess that your oven runs 25 degrees cold. Do one more test to see if this is indeed the situation. Heat your oven to 400°. Check the temperature after an hour. If the thermometer says 375°, then you can be reasonably sure that your oven is regularly heating 25 degrees less than what the dial on your oven face says. So you will always need to set your oven 25 degrees hotter to get the correct temperature.

Even with your oven calibrated, you will want to check the oven temperature every time you bake. Just to make sure the oven is still heating to the temperature you think it’s heating to. If you have an old oven, you might have a situation where the oven heats to random temperatures every time. If you use your oven a lot or really enjoy cooking, then it may be a good time (or a good excuse) to buy a new one. If you use it rarely, but still want your food cooked properly, then you’ll need to rely on the oven thermometer and allow enough time for the oven to heat or cool to the correct temperature.

I hope this helps you – enjoy cooking!

Chef’s Secret #1

Room Temperature Ingredients

Producing a consistent product day in and day out is vital to the Chef’s success. Each product begins with the formulation of a recipe and in theory, when followed will yield the exact taste, texture, and presentation every time. If only baking were that easy. This article focuses on the importance of the temperature of raw ingredients during the time of processing.

The best place to reveal the importance of ingredient temperature is in baking. When at room temperature, eggs, butter, and other dairy ingredients form an emulsion, which traps air. While baking in the oven, that trapped air expands and produces a fluffy baked goods. Examples include a light-textured cake or a tender cupcake. Not only this, room temperature ingredients bond together since they’re warmer, creating a seamless and evenly textured batter. A smooth mixture equals uniformly textured baked goods. Cold ingredients do not incorporate together as easily, if at all! Clumpy frosting, chunky cheesecake, no spread cookies, dense bread and flat muffins are examples. In other words, complete recipe failure.

Being patient is critical when bringing ingredients to room temperature and trust us: the end result makes waiting worthwhile.